


A Murder's Submission

by orphan_account



Category: Final Fantasy XIII
Genre: Action, Action/Adventure, Betrayal, Canon-Typical Violence, Death, Follows Canon, Horror, Mild Gore, Mystery, No Smut, Psychological Torture, Torture, farron parents?, ignores ffxii-2 and LR, no main cast death, this will turn dark and sad fast
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-06-11
Updated: 2014-02-21
Packaged: 2017-12-14 15:00:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 21,448
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/838211
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Post-game: Lightning was always haunted by the death of her parents, but new evidences rose from the surface. Now the true killer will have to show their face. Which forces Lightning to change sides in the battlefield and betray her new family.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. We Meet Again

**Author's Note:**

> Enjoy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am glad to finally post a FF XIII fic. Now there is something's you need to know. First, this will in no way tie into XIII-2,LR, or Verses/15. Second, Fang and Vanille are back for the sake of the plot. Third, the only paring might be Serah/Snow. (We will see)because romance will not really tie into the plot. Lastly, this will take place about a year latter. I know civilization can't be rebuild THAT fast but…please put up with me. Trust me, plot reasons.  
> This story idea came to me in a very interesting dream, and I just been letting the plot bunnies stay in my head. (EDIT: CHAPTER FIX)
> 
> When you see "(SUBMIT)" that is the time/place change.
> 
> "Talking"  
> 'Thinking'  
> "Flashback/dreams"  
> WARNING(s): slight language, slight family violence.
> 
> Chapter I: We Meet Again  
>  "Haunted by the past  
>  a nightmare that seems so unreal  
>  Wish that I could turn back time  
>  and spare the pain that we both feel  
>  and now, we've changed  
>  Things will never be the same  
>  we were foolish then  
>  But our trials served to make us strong"  
>  -Nothing I won't Give, Vic Mignogna

(SUBMIT)  
"Claire!"  
She turned her heels and ran. Her mother's voice did not stop Claire from going up the stairs even though her parents wanted her to stay. "Stop her!" The voice was different. It belonged to an older male. Somebody she had never meet. Yet when started running after her, Claire was also ran. Yet, she ran a lot faster than them. Seeing her run made one PSICOM troop fired a warning shot into the air. "Hey!" It was her father this time. "Come back here Claire!" His voice held authority. Yet she was not going to stop.

"Ge-"  
'What,' Lightning thought to herself. "Get up already!" Lightning opens up her eyes to see her baby sister hovering over her. Serah had a concern look. "Are you ok? You were panicking in your sleep. Did you have nightmare?" Her voice was very soft and caring, it reminds Lightning of their mother, but even her sister’s comforting voice couldn’t slow Lightning’s heart. "Serah, get out of my room." Her voice was cutting but Serah is trained to hear the ease in her sister’s voice. So, with that knowledge, she stays by her side. Figuring out Serah was not leaving, Lightning turns in her bed in a failed attempt to ignore her sister. That was not going to work. "No." Serah tugs on the blanket. "You need get up."  
Lightning turned back around to look at the clock on the nightstand.

10:49 A.M

"Shit." Lighting jumps out of bed and nearly runs over own her sister. "Shit. I'm late for work! I can not be late. I am never late!" The older Farron slams open the closet door and scrambled through her clothes. Serah simply shook her head, glancing around the neat room. "You know…I don't see why you work with the Guardian Corp."  
'Not this again. Not now.' Lightning mentally groaned as she started changing into her uniform. "Someone needs to pay the bills." It was a simple yet truthful response. Of course it was unsuccessful. "We are making enough Gil." Lightning pause.  
"Is that why you woke me up late?" Her own sister is sabotaging her job! The very thought shocks her and forces her to stop what she was doing. Then gives her a look that demands an answer from her sister. "No! I just-"  
She cuts her off. "I don't have time for this." Lighting grabbed her Blazefire Saber and walks to the door. "Sis…" Lightning looked back her sister. She know her weakness. Serah gives a sad sigh as she looks ready to burst into tears. "I just don't want you working on your birthday. We’ve been over this..." Her voice was so quiet that Lightning almost had trouble hearing it.

Lighting huffs angrily but relaxes slightly when seeing the look on Serah's face. 'You are supposed to be more open and nice to her,' she scowled to herself. 'Be more tactful about this.' She backed away from the door and closer to her younger sister. "Listen Serah, I want what's best for us." Serah stares down at her feet. "Then it's my fault…" Lightning shakes her head. "Don't you ever think that. None of this is your fault." 'It's mine.' She silently adds to herself.

The older Farron pulls back from Serah and reaches for the door. She still felt bad for doing this to Serah. She made her a promise to be more open and caring, and here she was breaking that promise. It is eating her up. "I…" God, what should she say? "I will try to leave work a couple of minutes early." Serah's head shoots up and she runs to her older sister. Lightning slightly stumbles when Serah gives her a tight hug. She stands there awkwardly for a moment, but she gave in and gave a small hug back. True it was uncomfortable but at least she was trying. The younger Farron giggled at her sister's weird movement. Still, she knew Lightning is putting in an effort, and that is all that matters. Lightning pulls away. "I should get going." Serah gives an understanding nod as her sister leaves her room.

Lightning leaves her room in disbelief. 'I will be lucky if I do not get fired. Why was Serah even in my room? Why didn't my alarm clock go off? I hope that wasn't Serah's doing.' Lightning stays in detective mode as tries to come up with a reasonable answer. She quickly walks down the hallway and pass Snow. 'Wait…Why is HE in MY house?' Snow looked oblivious to Lightning's sour mood. "Hey sis!" His voice was as cheerful as ever. Lighting freezes in her spot and cross her arms across her chest. "Snow? How the hell did you get into my house?"He rubs the back of his neck and gave off a nervous laugh. "Well, I came by last night to visit you guys, but Serah said you were on patrol. Sooo, I did not want Serah to be all alone and-well I crashed here for the night." She stares at him for a moment before trying to walk off again before she breaks his teeth. "I'll deal with you later." She was going to have a talk with Serah later as well.  
"Hey. Wait."

Lightning rolls her eyes and turns back to him. "What?" Her voice gave off her irritation. "Where are you running off to?" Lightning gestured to her uniform. "To work. Where else?" Snow moves a bit to block her way down the stairs. "But you worked last night? That seems a bit unfair to have to go to work in the morning. You know, lack of sleep and all."  
Lightning would not deny that. She did not come home until five in the morning and was ready to collapse, but what can she do? PSICOM and Guardian Corp. are short handed so they needed to make up for the lack of troops. That was really the main reason they took her back into the GC. Then the new soldiers had no experience and were getting in way over their heads. It made Lightning look like a General! The Farron did, however, finally earned her promotion and reached the rank of Lieutenant. It was nice actually but with the new rank came new responsibilities.

"It may be unfair but I need to do my job," She pushes past him. "Stay out of my house next time." It was a warning and he knows it but blows it off with a laugh.  
Lighting keeps on going forward in her house. She walks past the kitchen, and Fang waved at her and gave a "Good morning, sunshine!"  
"Shut up, Fang." Lighting stops in her tracks and turns back into the kitchen. There was Fang sitting in HER chair and eating HER food. Next to her was Vanille, who gave a happy smile and an eager wave. She luckily is not eating, yet Light assumes she was there to keep Fang company. What catches her attention is the suitcases near them. "My house is not a Bed and Breakfast." Fang laughs. "Really? That not what our big hero says." Oh, she is so going to murder Snow. "What? Did you stay overnight to keep Serah company too?"Fang shakes her head with a grin on her face. "Maybe. You do have a nice, innocent little sister." That earns her a growl from the unhappy Farron, but before Fang could do anymore damage, Vanille butts in.  
"Sorry Light. You see, Fang set our house on fire and we needed a place to stay while it gets repaired." She explains as Fang cuts her off. "Then Snowy boy said we can crash here. He said you would not mind." Fang then put her feet on top of Lightning's nice wooden table. That earns her a dark glare. "How did you burn down your house?" She almost did not want to know, but at the same time she is a bit concern. "With fire of course!" Light huffs as she was disapproving with the answer given to her. "You know that's not what I meant."  
"So can we stay for a while?" Lightning thinks about it for a second. 'It won't hurt to have extra eyes and ears around here. Even if I do tell them no, they would still stay and Serah will throw a fit.' She knows that was not the only reason. After all, Lightning views them as family now. One big, annoying family. Great. Still, Lightning looks out for her family.

Lightning glances at the microwave.  
10:58 A.M.

She really needs to leave. "Fine." She goes back to the kitchen door while Fang calls out to her. "Where are you going Light?" This time Lightning did not comment back. She needs to get out of here before she blows a fuss. The older Farron knows that letting those two in her house will bring nothing but trouble. Well, mostly Fang. Still, she could not find it in her heart to say no.  
'Maker, I am getting soft.'

(SUBMIT)

Lightning sprints inside the GC headquarters. There is a small huddle of co workers near the front desk. Lightning rolled her eyes at the sight. "Shouldn't you people be working?" They turned to her. Some right away pale and walk off to do their jobs. Four stay behind with a grin on their faces. Lightning smirks inside. 'You won't be doing that after I am finished with you.' One young soldier walks up to her and leans in too close. "You're cute you know," he states coolly. That move is not impressive to Lightning Farron. 'He must be a rookie.' No one in their right mind would talk to her like that. Before she can say anything he begins talking again. "You know," he pause to look back at his buddies, which one gives him a thumbs up. "If I could see a gorgeous girl, like you, naked I would die happy."  
"Really? If I saw you naked I would die of laughter." The guy winces at the comeback. Lightning can see his friends now laughing at him. The man recovers and glares at her. His pride be wounded. "I should teach you a lesson!" Lightning's smirk finally shows. "Bring it. I love putting people in their place."

He growls but makes no move. "What's wrong? Are you just all talk?" They both stare intimidating at each other. Both not want to back down. Lightning's hand twitched slightly. She did not want to do the first blow. If she did she would in trouble but if she did it out of self-defense…"Hey man, drop it. She's not worth it." One of his smart friends suggests. He glares a bit more before moving back. "Yeah. You're right." It was a low mutter, but he walked near a bench and sits down. Lightning shakes her head but decides to no longer provoke the man. If she is lucky one of these days, she might end up sparring with him. Out of the corner of her eyes she could see a clock on the wall.

11:20 A.M

She groaned. 'Amodar is going to fire and kill me.' Nevertheless, the late soldier walks past a maze of hallways and finally reached the outside of her commanding officer's office. With a knock on the door, she let herself in. The office was tidy. It seems to be the only organize room in the entire building in her opinion. "Farron?" She breaks out of her thoughts when Amodar calls out to her. "Reporting in." She holds back a wince when she sees him look at his watch. The older man stares at it for a while, shakes it around, and even puts it up to his ears to see if it stopped running. Once he finds out it was working he glances back at her. "Good to see that you came to work. For a while I thought you became a L'cie again." Lightning stiffs somewhat. "Sorry, I-" She feels stupid for what she was going to say. "I woke up late." He laughs lightly. "Oh, what are we going to do with you Lightning?" Lightning tries to give another apology but Amodar waves her off. "Well, you might as well go home. When you did not show up we got someone at your post instead. Try not to let it happen again." She did not come all this way and panic just to be told "go home." Surely they must have something to do.

The look on her face makes her boss chuckle. He seems to read her mind. "There is one mission that is open." Lightning senses sharpen when hearing those words. The new Captain starts to go through a couple of papers and finally hands some to her. Her eyes scan it carefully and quickly. "An investigation in three settlements? What for?"  
"It seems that some of the settlements up north have been having problems. There are reports of people burning down buildings, kidnappings, and a handful of murders." Lightning looks unsure. "Don't they have PSICOM in those areas?" Amodar nods. "Yes. I suppose they are really that desperate since they are reaching out to us. It has been going on for a while."  
"Sir, I am sure you know that sending me is a risk right?"  
Ever since they first started inhabiting Pulse, PSICOM and Guardian Corp. fought on how things should be run. So they split up. The PSICOM watched over the northern and Eastern territory. So the Guardian Corp. took care of the Southern and western parts of Pulse. Both sides did not plan on going at war with each other luckily. In fact, they help their fellow people. Still things were way different in PSICOM's land. There were more strict laws, heavier persecution on the L'cie, less freedom, propaganda, and PSICOM in every corner. However, they had the safest land.

Lightning did not even want to think about it. Now, she did not want even accept the mission. "You will be doing the Guardian Corp. a great favor by doing this," he tries to convince her. "I know but-" Lightning knows that if she accepts the job, she will be out of town for weeks if not months. Who knows? It might even be longer than that!  
If she did take the quest it will show that PSICOM and Guardian Corp. can get along, and lessen the fear of L'cie in the surrounding area. It would be a win-win situation. Sadly she will have to put up with people that hate her and she would have to leave Serah. The last one made her swallow thickly. 'You just love lying to people don't you?' Her inner self snaps. "You know what?" Amodar looks at her curiously. "I'll take the job."  
He smiles as he gets up. The older man hands her the rest of the papers and shows her to the the door. “Be ready. The mission will start tomorrow.”  
Lightning gave a reassuring nod.  
“Yes, sir.”

(SUBMIT)

"She is pulling up the driveway!" Hope shouts loudly so everyone in the household could hear. Which causes mass panic. They were almost done setting up Lightning’s birthday party. "Claire wasn't kidding when she said she was leaving early." Serah for once wished her sister stayed at work a bit longer.  
"What do we do?" Vanille ask as she stands on a chair to put up the last of the part of the decoration. Everyone stops to think for a moment. Sazh is the first to come up with an idea. "We need to keep her busy."  
"Looks like your time to shine, Serah." Fang eagerly starts to push Serah to the front door. "What do I do?" Fang rolls her eyes. "I don't know. Just by us more time! Ask her about her day or something." Once she gets Serah close enough to the door, Fang retreats back into the kitchen as she turns off some of the lights on her way over there. The young Farron opens up the front door. In doing so she can see her older sibling getting out of the vehicle. 'What do I do? What do I do?' "Hi Claire! Uh…how was your day?" That was horrible. Lightning takes her time walking up the steps. "Uneventful." She tries to walk pass Serah but the she did not budge. "Are you going to let me in my own house?" 

"I just wanted to talk to you." Inside Serah jumps for joy with the excuse. "We can talk inside." Now her inner self wanted to cry. "Well, I just thought we can…" She thoughts, for a moment, could not gather up of anything. Lightning gives a light sigh. "What is it? Did Fang set part of my house on fire too?"

"Yes." Serah covers her mouth with her hands. 'Why did I just say that?' Lightning's eyes widens but it changes quickly into an evil glare. Serah can sees her sister’s hand turn into a fist. "Fang is dead." Before Serah can say anything else, Lightning runs past her and into the house. "Wait! Claire!" Serah chases in after her angry sister. 'What have I done?'  
Lighting on the other hand is ready to have a brawl with Fang. "I knew I should have told them to leave. Where are they?" She glances around the dim living room to find no one but something looks off about her house. Lightning turns to sister and notice Serah giving a worried look towards the kitchen. 'They must have destroyed it.' Living up to her name, she rushes to the kitchen to inspect the "damage". Once again her sister calls out to her and trails behind, but that was not going to slow her down. It was dark in the kitchen and Lightning struggles to find the light switch. It took her a while but her hand soon finds it.  
The room is blinded by light and it takes her a second to realize that there are people in her house. It startled the paranoid soldier and she reaches out for her gunblade.

"Surprise!"

Lightning recognizes the voices and quickly pulls away from her weapon. She takes in the whole room. It is decorated with many colorful ribbons, it looks cleaner than usual, and even the table held many different types of food. She examines the room now of the people and recognizes everyone, including team NORA. She stands there, confuse, until Serah walks in and gives a late, "surprise."  
"What is all this for?" Snow walks up to Farrons and playfully ruffles Lightning's hair. "Don't pretend it not your birthday." Lightning smacks his hand away and out of the kindness of her heart, does nothing more. Normally she would have knocked the living daylights out of him but her conscience prevents her from doing so. "Touch me again and I will cut off your hands."Right there Serah chose to interfere. "We thought it would be nice if we made you a little party. We all worked really hard on it. I hope you like it." Everyone stares at her for her approval. Lightning did not want to look like a bad guy and gave a simple nod. “It’s very nice. Thanks.” That earns many cheers and "Yes!" With Lightning's ok everyone began to mingle with one another.  
'I am getting too soft.'

(SUBMIT)

It was almost midnight when the party started dying down. The last NORA member left and Sazh carries a sleeping Dajh in his arms as he left. Hope asked if he could stay for the night because it was very late, and Lightning agreed as she lends him an extra pillow and blanket. Fang and Vanille decided to take up her one guest bedroom. As for Snow, he seemed to be lingering around a bit and soon asks if he to can stay. Right when Lightning was going to say no, Serah replies with a yes. Not wanting to fight with her sister, like her last birthday, she merely walks off while she said, "Stay out of Serah's room."  
With everything taken care of it was finally time to go to bed. When getting ready for the night she remembers about the mission for tomorrow. "I almost forgot." Serah is going to kill her. She is going to be mad at her for leaving the day after her birthday and be upset as to way she did not tell her sooner.

A knock on her bedroom door drawn her back into reality. "Come in." The door creaks open and Serah pops her head in. "I wanted to say goodnight." Lightning can tell there was happiness in her voice. "Night then." Serah makes her way into the room. Her body language say something else. "I was wondering. Can we maybe spend sometime together tomorrow? We can go to the beach, shopping, and-I don't know we can look around town. It will be fun." Lightning couldn’t help but to zone out as Serah keeps on talking. 'Damn. You need to tell her about the mission now! Maybe I should have rejected it…'  
"Are you even listening?" Lightning blinks and Serah gives a fake pout. "Yes, you were talking about spending time with me." The younger sister nervously plays with her side ponytail. "What do say?" Lightning gives a sigh. Serah immediately worries at the thought of rejection.  
"I have a mission tomorrow, Serah." There! She said it. Her face was cover in confusion. So Lightning decides to elaborate. "I am going to be out of town for a couple weeks."

"Why are you telling me this now?" Her feelings sound hurt but anger can also be heard far away. "I just found out today," Lightning defends. Sadly, Serah is not buying it. "Why didn't you say no then?" She was going to make a comeback but stumbles over her own thoughts. "I can't believe you!"  
"Why are you making this such a big deal out of this?" Now Lighting can feel herself losing her temper. Serah gasps at the comment. "It is a big deal! Why do you always have to do this? You know you are just falling back into your old habits?"  
"It's my job Serah!" Serah stomps her foot on the floor like a child throwing a fit. "I wish you never joined the Guardian Corp." Lightning takes a step closer to Serah. "You make it sound like my job is perfect! Do you know how much crap I have to put up with every single day at work? Wait. You wouldn't know because I tried to give to you a normal childhood while I gave up mine! So I am so sorry for doing all the work!"Serah looks hurt but too was not backing down from the fight. Her pride would not allow it. "Normal childhood? Our parents are dead and my sister was turning into a stranger! How is that normal?Do you know how lonely I was?"

Something inside Lightning snaps. The thought of her parents dead was the last thing she ever wanted to be brought up. With her anger guiding her, she roughly grabbed her smaller sister's wrists. "DON'T YOU DARE BRING THEM INTO THIS!"  
Serah tries to pull away but her sister is way stronger than her. "Let go!" Her voice shacks and holds fear in it. Out of that same fear, Serah starts to kick Lightning. However, it did not do the trick. She knows that her sister can be violent but she never did anything to her. Never. "Let go! Let go! Let go!" Serah keeps on kicking and shouting. Yet, Lightning can’t seems to loosen her grip. Luckily, Lightning’s door slams open. Snow rushes in, barely dressed, with a worried expression on his face. When he witnesses what is happening, he jumps in between the sisters."Hey!" He forces Lightning to let go of Serah. "Everyone calm down." The large man stands between them. Serah huffs angrily and walks to the door. When she reaches the doorway she turns back to her sister and shouts, "I hate you!" Then walked off. Lightning, still being upset, wanted the last word the fight.  
"Stop being an ungrateful, spoiled brat!"Snow is very confuse and concern for both Farrons.  
"Sis-"  
"Just go. Now."  
Snow did not move right away but soon takes his leave. By the sound of his footsteps he was heading to Serah's room. Lightning did not care at the moment. Why should she after all? She walks to her bed and sits there for a good while. She keeps playing the scene in her head over and over again. She almost hurt her baby sister. The same one she tore Cocoon down for. The soldier shakes her head at herself. "So stupid."  
(SUBMIT)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Leave a Kudo and/or a comment! Feedback is always welcome along with ideas or suggestions!


	2. Plunging into the Wilds

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I am glad to see that people like my story. I am really am not sure how long this is going to be… *nervous laugh* I don't want this story to drag endlessly but at the same time I should not allow this to just end.  
> Remember, that I am open to ideas/suggestions. So you can always PM/Review it me. You don't have to be signed in to review my stories.  
> Disclaimer: If I owned Final Fantasy than I would not be on FANfiction…So I sadly do not own it.  
> WARNING(s): slight Language, Violence, Death, and Blood.  
> You've been warned.  
> "Talking"  
> 'Thinking'  
> Flashback/Dream

Chapter II: Plunging into the Wilds  
"I look ahead to all the plans that we made  
And the dreams that we had  
I'm in a world that tries to take them away  
But I'm taking them back  
Cause all this time  
I've just been too blind to understand  
What should matter to me"  
\- Not my Time, 3 Doors Down

(SUBMIT)

There was blood; too much blood. Cars came to a hard screeching halt. Bullets sprayed and hit anyone and everything in its way. Claire stared at the site. People fearfully ran out of their cars as they held their children in their arms. Others took their chances by jumping in the cold water below the huge bridge she stood on. Everyone is dying while she just there stood. She was frozen in her spot, in fear. Her eyes were wide in horror. After all, a fifteenth year old should never witness such a horrible event taking place. What was she to do? The only thing she did do was take the bullet that mercilessly pierced her left shoulder. Right near her heart.

(SUBMIT)

Her heart pounds hard against her chest and Lightning shoots up from her bed. "Not again." Her hands shake violently from the dream. No. Not a dream; a memory. She feels disgusting with the cold sweat covering her and she decreases her breathing to a normal rate. Once Lightning relaxes enough she took a glance at her clock. It was four in the morning. Waking up like that she no longer feels the need to go back to sleep. Unfortunately for her, she did not need to report to the Guardian Corp. for another four hours. So it was not a necessity to get ready at that time. The former L'cie throws the cover off her and walks out of her room. The house feels strangely cold and eerier than it should. Lightning creeps quietly in the hallway. She slows down when she sees Serah's room. Now is not the best time to talk to her. So she passes by it and travels downstairs. Why did she even go down there? There was nothing interesting on the first floor. Her living room did have a nice TV, but nothing would be on at this hour. Then she figures if there was something good on she could not even watch T.V. When she reaches the bottom, Lightning looks at the small sleeping figure, which belonged to Hope, on the couch.

With nothing good in the living room, Lightning enters the kitchen. 'Might as well drink something.' After she grabs a glass of water, the Farron takes a seat at the table. It is dark and dead quiet. The silence was something that would only be in a horror movie. Yet, it did not bother her the slightest. In fact, it is almost comforting. What did catch her off guard was the sudden footsteps walking about. Did she wake up Hope? No. The footsteps are too loud for the kid. Even so, they were nothing compared to Snow. The steps are not in any rush so that put the soldier at ease. Anyone could have woken up. Lightning finally looks up when it comes closer to the kitchen. She stiffens but relaxes when she recognizes who it was. Fang.

Her hair is messier than usual and she drags herself to Lightning. She warrior grabs the closest chair and pulls it next to Lightning. The chair makes a lot of noise when it was carelessly being pulled. Lightning shakes her head. She should have stayed in her room. "Hi." That's it? Out of all the things that can be said, she simply says "hi". 'Does she even know what happened?' Lightning pondered on that for too long. "Not going to say anything? That's fine. I can talk all day then." Fang stretches and yawns at the same time. No doubt she is still tired. So why is she here then? "Why are you here, Fang? Shouldn't you be asleep right now?" She laughs. "I could say the same for you. You know. I heard what happened upstairs." Lightning turns her head away from Fang. She did not need to be told what she did was wrong. That is the last thing she needs to hear at the time. Fang notice to atmosphere change and treads on with caution. "I am not here to judge you about your actions." Lightning faces Fang again. There is a flicker Lightning's eyes. Fang sees the sadness, anger, but mostly saw regret.

"I'm not asking for your pity." Fang adjusts in her seat. "I was not planning on giving it to you. I was making sure you were ok. Are you?" Lightning sits in silence. Of course she is not fine. Everything is going down hill like on her twenty-first birthday. It's like fate loves messing with her on the day she was born on. Then again, it could have been avoided if she kept her cool and she knows it. "Fang." How is she going to say this? "I can not rewrite the past. It is stuck with me forever to burden alone." Fang shook her head slowly. "You're wrong there Light. It does not have to be like that. We are your friends you know. Stop shoving us out of your life. I want help you. What happened?" Lightning snickers. "I thought you said you already knew?"

"I want to hear your side of the story." Her voice sounds concern. "You want to know? Fine, I will tell you." She stands up from her chair. "We argued because I told her I was going on a mission. Then it got out of control when she…she brought-It does not even matter." The words rush out of her mouth without a care and that is when she realized she was saying a bit too much information about her personal life. Fang, though, wanted to keep hearing more. "No. No. Please continue."  
"I'd rather not." With that Lightning passes Fang as she walks to the door. Fang too follows her way out. "I hear you, Light. I'm not going to dangle you over a cliff just to get ya to talk. Just know that I'm here for you." Lightning by now is making her way back to her room by going up the stairs. Fang sighs softly when the other female replies with a, "Whatever."

"Typical Lightning."

(SUBMIT)

The sun finally rose from the horizon and the older Farron gets out of bed once again. After her talk with Fang, a couple of hours, she forces herself to go back to sleep. It worked pretty well, actually. So with the extra sleep, she feels better physically. Then a quick shower helped her even more. Once she was done getting dress, Lightning makes her way to the kitchen to grab a quick breakfast. The moment she enters is when she senses the awkwardness in the room. By the looks of things everyone beat her to the cook food. It did not bother the older Farron at all but what did bother is everyone's worry glances. Serah is sitting the furthest away from where Lightning usually sits. Her plate is empty and she assumes that she is done eating. On Serah's left is snow, who is still eating, but also conversing with Sazh. Lightning assumes the man arrived when she was still getting ready. Across the oldest man is Vanille. The girl looks slightly distracted by a magazine on the table. On her right is Fang. She gives Lightning a look. The kind of look that goes, "Say-something-to-your-sister-before-things-get-more-weird" look. Lightning instead looks to see that Hope was the one in Serah's usual spot. She did not mind though. Her house will always be his second home.

Lightning walks to the where the dishes are kept and simply got a bowl of cereal. It is not the greatest food she eats but it is something. As she continues eating, Snow keeps breaking the silence by talking about random things. He asks stupid questions and it was starting to annoy the soldier. "I'm leaving." Everyone shut their mouths and hope to hear their leader say more but she did not. Lightning stands and place the bowl in the sink. 'Say something, Serah.' She did not care if Serah is willingly to argue with her or call her names. Lightning may not even mind a fake "Take care." Unfortunately, the younger sister did not even acknowledge what Lightning even said. Out of the corner of her eye, she can see Serah drifting off to space. Who knows what she is thinking about? Kindly, everyone else say their goodbyes. Still, it is almost nothing to Lightning. 'I should talk to her about what happened yesterday.' She really did not want to talk about the matter in front of everyone. 'I’ll do it when I get back from the mission.' It seems like a good idea. Both of them can cool their heads down during that time.

With the last goodbyes, Lightning leaves. Just like that, her sister Lightning is gone. It's not like she will never see the older Farron again. 'Things are just weird between us. I felt sca-terrified of my own sister! The one that raised me when mom and dad died.' Serah did feel guilty for not saying anything, but she could not find it in her to let the words slip out. 'Pride must run in our family.' Serah gives her head a massage. "You should have talked to her when you had the chance." The voice is almost taunting. Serah turns as Fang walks closer to the girl. "What was I supposed say?" Fang shrugs her shoulders. "You tell me that, girly. She is your lovely big sister." Serah walks to the window and looks out of it in some false hope that Lightning would come back. "I was so scared. The look in her eyes was murderous! Like Claire never even existed in her. Not even Lightning was that mean. She took the lead when many others would have given up." Her voice cracks on the last couple of words.

Fang can hear the others standing near by as they try to listen in on the conversation. It did not hassle her the slightest though. "How did your parents pass away?" The warrior knows she heading for uncharted waters but that is the core of the problem. If the Farrons weren't going to solve it on their own then she will! Serah hesitates but looks thoughtful. "It was so long ago...and I was so young. Claire always told me that PSICOM killed mom and dad." "What?" Both girls turned around as the rest of the gang came out from their hiding. Snow looks the most concern one out of the group. "PSICOM? Why would PSICOM do that?" He thinks for a moment. "There was a reason, right?"  
"That's the weird thing about it." Everyone's curiosity perks up. "There was no reason. They came into our house one day and..." She swallows hard. "They killed them." Sazh saddens at the thought of a child seeing their parents die. "I am sorry you had to see that." Serah waves her hands in front of her body. "No. I did not see it. Claire did. Then they tried to kill her next."  
"How did they not kill her," Hope asks. Everybody wants to know. "Yeah. It's kind of odd on how trained soldiers could not stop a kid." Hope raises an eyebrow at Snows comment but said no more. It felt foreign to talk about her parents. After their death, they never brought it up. Lightning did not see the need to. "They’re gone and we can't bring them back. There's no point in talking about them." Serah saw it in her sister's eyes that she was deeply hurt. That Claire was not gone. That always stayed in Lightning until she joined the Guardian Corp. After that, there was not even that emotion in her eyes anymore. Claire died with their parents; which caused Lightning to be born.  
“I don't know.”

(SUBMIT)  
"Good to see you are on time for once," Amodar opens his arms friendly. Lightning always wonders how the older man can be so laid back in a job so serious. The younger one of the can barely hear over the sound of the helicopter's engines. Both of their hair, mostly Lightning's, swishes wildly due to the helicopter's main rotor* spinning. "I'm guessing you are never going to let that go, are you?" Her superior laughs. "You know I mean well." Amodar glances at his watch. "Well, we can't be wasting time. Here's the plan. You will be going to three settlements: Nettage, Rohab, and Colrick. In Nettage you will be investigating the murders there. When you are done with that, then you be sent to Colrick. They are having hooligans burning and trashing houses and buildings there. Lastly, Rohab haves a major kidnapping problem." Lightning gives him a concerned look. "Sir, just one of those missions is time consuming. You me to do them all?"  
"From our reports, they seem to be connected. If you solve one then you may have solved the other two." Lightning comprehends the reasoning and nods in agreement. Still, this mission was not going to be done in two days. It may take weeks to months. 'After I am done, I will look around and get something Serah will like.' Yeah. Nothing says "I'm sorry" than a gift. There are many shops and merchants in settlements. She can find a perfect present for her sister. 'I might as well get the others something too.' The back of her mind remembers the rest of her family. 'Except Snow. He can go screw himself.'

Amodar nudges her out her thoughts. "It is time for you to get going. Do not keep the pilot waiting." He hands her a helmet with a microphone attached to it. "Be safe out there." Lightning straps the object on as she makes her way to the helicopter. With one leap she seats in one of the back seats. The pilot turns to her and gives her thumbs up. Lightning nods her head as she feels them being lifted off the ground.

(SUBMIT)

Lightning tries to stretch as much as she could in the small helicopter. She feels her muscles stiffening and they desperately want to be out on the ground. She has been it for maybe a couple of hours already and it is starting to take a toll. "Why are we taking forever to get there?" The man glances back at her confusingly. He points to his ears, which are covered up by his headset. 'Oh.' How can she forget to use the headset? 'Come on Farron! That's what they are made for.' With a flick of a switch she asks the question again.  
The pilot smiles gently as he turns his on. "We are taking a detour."Lightning glares at him. 'That's not part of the plan.'

"Listen. I do not have time for this nonsense. You need to take me to the settlements now." The man stays quiet for a while. He turns back to her with a look that she is familiar with. The same look you give a monster. "I do not give a shit of what your mission is! Mine is way more important than what you have been given. I will be viewed as a hero after this." Lightning can feel her heart thumping faster in fear as the helicopter started moving downward. "Are you crazy? You are going to get us both killed!" He smiles sadly. There are almost tears in his eyes. "I am leaving behind a family to kill you. You l'cie animals are going to pay for what you did to cocoon." She fumbles with her seat belt but it is not working. 'No. This can't be happening!' The man did not care and continues his rant. "Once you are dead the world will be a better place." He reaches into his pocket. Seconds later a gun is pulled out from it. "Who should I kill this gun with? You or me? I shot you then the damn government will arrest me when I land. I can shot myself and let this helicopter crash with you in it! Which is it going to be?"

It scares her on how calm he is. What can she do? The guy seems like a nut-job and feels like he is doing the right thing. "You don't have to do this! We can talk this out." She is not good with reasoning with people but Lightning gives it a shot anyway. He twirls the gun around in his hand. With the lack of attention on the helicopter did not ease her nerves. 'Stay calm! Just keep reasoning with him.' "If you have a family then you should not be throwing your life for me." His light laugh borders insanity. With the gun rising to her, Lightning sees her life flash before her eyes. Her parents dying, not going far in her education, joining the Guardian Corp, losing Claire, turning into a L'cie, saving Serah, and fighting with her baby sister. 'No. I can't die. Not now.' In a desperate struggle she scrambles to the gun. The man is startled by the action and jerks away from her. In doing so, he hits the cyclic* and the caused both of them to be tossed about harshly. Lightning urgently pulls the gun from his grip but the guy is not letting go.

"Let go!" Both of them keep a secure grip on the weapon. With one last tug, Lightning pulls the gun from the man. The man panics with the lost of the weapon. In a desperate attempt he aims the helicopter straight to a large hill. "Of course." Lightning brace herself as everything erupts in flames and metal hitting the ground below.

(SUBMIT)

She can not breathe. The smoke is consuming every corner of her. Her body is also aching badly. That is not the worse part. The rising heat from the flames made her instinctively pull away from the fire. 'Why is it so hot?' Everything was disorienting and her head was killing her. The lack of sight is not helping. It was then that she came to her senses. 'I need to get out of here.' Her fear of death aids her and forces her to take action to live. She cuts the seat belt with her survival knife. Once that was off, Lightning drags herself out of the crash. She feels grateful to breathe in the fresh air. Lightning stumbles, as far away as she could, from the crash site. The crackling fire rise up to her ears and the burning flesh of the pilot makes her sick to her stomach. It is getting dark but she had other problems to worry about. The flames started spreading in the near by grass but Lightning is at a good distance by then. At that point she thought it would be best to inspect her injures.

There was a thin cut going across her stomach but it was not deep enough to worry her. Her vision is blurry but she still needs to make sure nothing else is wrong. Her right wrist was killing her and she can see the bone slightly out of place. "Won't be using that anytime soon." A lot of bruises and cuts scattered everywhere on her body. Her inner organs are killing her, but Lightning is no doctor so she had no clue of the seriousness of it. Before Lightning can do more she starts swaying side to side. A wave of nausea comes over her but it did not bother her to much. What did bother her was that annoying ringing noise.  
"Where is that coming from?"

(SUBMIT)

This can not be happening. Serah is in shock. She was sound asleep when a Guardian Corp officer came to her door, telling her that her sister was missing. "No. Why are you here then? You should be out there trying to find her!" Snow tries to comfort her but she only wants her older sister now. At least the officer was trying to be as careful as he can be in a delicate situation. He hated this part of his job. He needed to inform people about what happened to their loved ones and that was not easy. Serah does know that some did it callously, like when her mom and dad died.

"Our reports say they never made it into any of the settlements. An hour later it was confirmed that it crashed a while ago. I am sorry ma'am. We are doing our best to…recover her. Everyone understood what he was referring to. They all think she is dead. "We have trouble locating them. We sent search parties out to find them but they are not on the path they were supposed to be on." Serah was already crying her heart out. Seeing that he finished his job here, he took his leave. Snow hugs Serah as he gives her hope that her sister was alive. "Don't worry Serah. We will find Lightning and bring her back safely." His voice failed to match his words but she still appreciated the gesture. "I will send NORA out to find her." Serah calms down and her eyes lit up slightly. She leans on him and mumbled a "thank you" to him. "Plus, she is Lightning. I am sure she is perfectly safe right now."

(SUBMIT)

"I am in deep shit." Looking around, the land she takes note of the lack of familiar surroundings. 'Must be in some forest.' Lightning leans against a tree for support. She can feel the lack of coordination. "What's wrong with me," her words slightly mixed together but it can easily go unnoticed. It is dark and the wild animals of Gan Pulse are coming out. 'I need to find civilization.' Lightning had been wondering around aimlessly for hours now. She could be going in the wrong way for all she knows! Nothing was going right at the moment. She is injured, lost, alone, and completely in a horrible situation. Lightning navigates blindly in the forest. Plans start forming in her head until a low growl is heard. Lightning freezes rapidly and hope it was just her head injury playing games with her. The shuffling sound breaks that suggestion.

The noise comes from her left. The creature creeps up on her. Even with her blurry vision she can tell it is a Gorgonopsid*. It looks smaller than most and Lightning assumes it was not fully grown yet. Instantly, she reaches out for her gunblade but a shock of pain runs through her arm. 'I forgot I hurt it.' The animal crouches as it looked ready to pounce and it did. It jumps high and aimed at her throat. In a swift motion, with her left hand she pulls out her dagger and swung it diagonally. It cries out in pain when it connects with the right side of its body. That makes it even more aggressive. The recovers and lashes again but Lightning jumps back in time. Her head begins to spin even more at the sudden movement. The Gorgonopsid somehow sensed it. This time it targets her leg. The sharp teeth wrapped around her left calf. They feel like blades cutting into her skin. Lightning tries to hold in her show of pain as the creature tugs on her leg. Her hand tightens on the dagger. She raises it high and shoves the weapon it to the wild animal's head. It twitches slightly before dying and the mouth loosens on her leg.

"That could have gone a lot better." Lightning places the dagger back in her pouch and looks at her leg. It was cut up badly and will more likely get infected if it was not taken care of soon. With one final grunt she walks away from the dead animal. Lightning pray that she is going the right way, but her lack of coordination makes her trip a few times before she gives up and decides to rest.  
"Look!"  
The voices. 'Who is that?' Lightning never recognize it.  
"Who is that? An outsider?"  
"She must be….We need to help."  
Are her scenes fooling with her? 'Maybe I was going the right way after all.' The thought brings comfort to her. 'I just may get out of this alive.'  
"Yes, and then afterwords we can show her our perfect society."  
'Wait.' The way they were talking sounded…strange. There was a peculiar tone it was said in. It was said in a way that you would hear in a horror movie. With Lightning lacking her full consciousness, she could not do anything as they help her up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> * main rotor- The propellers on top of the helicopter.  
> * Cyclic- Usually located between the pilot's legs and is commonly called the cyclic. It is used to change directions.  
> *Gorgonopsid- An animal on Gan Pulse. H~tt~p:/~/ima~ges~.wik~ia.~co~m/finalfantasy/images/0/07/FFXIII_enemy_Gorgonopsid.p~ng  
> Remove the "~"  
> I had a slight Writers block for this chapter but I broke it pretty darn fast.  
> I would also like to thank my new Beta XTAIGAX. I think this story can be a great success over time!


	3. Blissfulness

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lightning survives a deadly crash. However, now she finds herself surrounded by weird people that she wants nothing to do with but that is not her real problem. The real problem is the dark secrets hidden within the her saviors.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: It feels good hearing from you guys. It's even better that you enjoy my story! I hope you find this chapter enjoyable to read.  
> I am an open minded person and I would love to hear recommendations/ideas for my fic. Please do not hesitate to say what you are thinking.  
> Disclaimer: I wised on a fish that I would own FF XIII….sadly it did not work.  
> WARNING(s): …weirdness…
> 
> Chapter III: Blissfulness  
> "Last thing I remember, I was  
> running for the door  
> I had to find the passage back  
> to the place I was before  
> "Relax," said the night man,  
> "We are programmed to receive.  
> You can check-out any time you like,  
> but you can never leave"  
> -Hotel California, Eagles

(SUBMIT)

PSICOM chased after Claire up the stairs. Claire forces her legs to run. "Freeze!", one soldier shouted. She felt panic run through her and out of instinct, she kept running. Her parents shouted, begged for her to return but her fear forced her to not look back. Claire sprinted to her room and slammed the door which caused it to lock. PSICOM bashed on the door as they yell commands. "Why is this happening?" She stood in the middle of her room. They will find a way in soon. She paced around her room, hoping to find a solution. Claire was practically having an anxiety attack. Who knows what PSICOM will do to her? Can they even kill a fifteen year old? "What do I do?"

(SUBMIT)

Lightning wakes up in pain and confusion. She has no idea where she is or if she is in immediate danger. The bed she lies in is comfortable and warm. The warmth forces to her relax, and Lightning takes note of her head not hurting as bad as it is. The room is a calm light blue color and the bed she was in held a darker shade of the color blue to it. A small table stands peacefully next to the bed with a lovely vase on top. Many different flowers rest in the vase but the brightness slightly hurt her eyes.

It is only moments later that, to her surprise, the door slowly opens and a woman peeks her head inside. By the looks of it, she is about in her early fifties. Her hair was graying but her eyes pulse with life. The woman's clothing was slightly odd. They are robe-like clothing that was drained of color. It almost reminds Lightning of Fang’s clothing. The woman smiles at Lightning, who in return gives a curious stare. She did not look dangerous but Lightning is not one for letting guard down. "Hello, who are you feeling this lovely morning?" Lightning glances down at her attire and takes note of bandages covering up her body. "I've had worse."

It is a truthful response. The lady shakes her head but the smile looks permanently plastered on her face. "You should try and be more careful. You are very lucky that our scouts found you. They brought you back here and we were able to patch you up. You had a bad concussion there, sweety. Do not worry though. I am sure you will find your recovery here enjoyable." Her voice is cheery and kind…creepy and that makes Lightning's soldier scenes tell her something was dead wrong. There were countless times where Serah had gotten after Lightning for being paranoid. However, Lightning is not to discard these emotions.They have saved her before in the past and right her main job is to stay alive. However, she knows that she has overreacted before in the past. Still, Lightning can not be naïve. "Where am I?"

"You are in our wonderful village Cocoon!" Lightning raises an eyebrow in confusion. "Cocoon? Why did you name it that? We live on Gan Pulse now." The woman looks just as confuse as Lightning. "No. We live in our village Cocoon. Not on Pulse." Lightning holds back a laugh. "But your village is located on Pulse," Lightning tries reasoning with the older woman.  
The woman's smile faltered slightly at the name of the planet but instead protests in a different way. Denial.

"We live in our wonderful village of Cocoon." Lighting rolls her eyes at the comment and decides not to try and upset the lady. 'Maybe she's not all there.' It is a logical idea. Many people did not know how to cope with the thought of living on Pulse. It is a nightmare that came true to many. "Well, thanks for letting me heal up in your village. I really appreciate it. However, I got a mission I need to do though. So I better get going." Lighting glances around the room. "Have you seen my weapon? It should be a gunblade."

The plastered smile on the unknown woman's face widens. "Here, there is no violence. After all, in our village there is no need for such deadly instruments." Even Lightning's though body is killing her; she still forces herself to get out of the bed. God, she is pain. "I do not plan on staying here. Can I have a word with who’s in charge around here? I really need to leave." To Lightning's surprise, she did not hesitate in answering. "Our magnificent leader? Of course! He guides each and every one of us. He gives us hope and comfort when our very world was taken from by the demons of Pulse. I know you are confuse child. We all were when we arrived to hell but, if you stay, I am sure you will find what you are looking for."  
Lighting allows a small growl to escape but nothing more. “And is it that I am looking for?”

The woman moves about the room. “Why, the answers you always wanted. That is after all, we are always doing as humans.” Lightning tries to nod her head but struggles to do so. Yet, the woman seems to understand the gesture. “If you say so but i can’t stay here. Please, just get this ‘leader’ of yours over here.” She nods her head understandingly and makes her way out the room. “Should I bring him or would you care to join in the walk? It would do you wonders. You have been out for a long time.” Lightning likes the idea of freely moving about and slowly makes her way out of the bed. It is then that she notices that her clothes are different too. Instead, her attire was replaced with a blue hospital gown with match pajama pants. “Uh. Should I change if I am going out?”

“Oh no, sweetie! You are fine the way you are.” Lightning sighs softly and mumbles an “Ok”. She takes a couple steps before feeling lightheaded. The older woman moves closer and grabs the Farron’s arm to help steady her and holds onto her the rest of the walk to the door. Outside is interesting to say the least. The village is small and is surrounded by a forest. All the buildings are not modernized. They have an old touch feel to it that strangely grows onto Lightning. There are few people out and the ones that Lighting did see are wearing the same kind of robe as the woman. The place did not bother her as much as she thought it would. It could be much worst. Yet she can't help but to feel as if she is walking into a den full of hungry lions even though the place is peaceful. Lightning feels reassured that if anything were to happen, her soldier training will be there to back her up. After all, what can a small number of cult weirdos do to Lightning?

She taken down the Sanctum's best men and fal'cies left and right. No one can bet her. Still, Lightning needs to play this game a bit longer and she will be out of here. Even though she was no longer a l'cie, some people still hate her and her family, and they will do anything to harm them. She needs to get home to protect them. "Our leader is in there." Lightning looks up at the building before her. It was not huge but it was bigger than the rest of houses and shops. Lighting nods her head and pushes the door open with no problem. She makes her way in and realizes the strangle lady is not following her. Shrugging her shoulders, she keeps going deeper in. There is maybe about ten people in the building and they all ranged from different ages. Some are still children while others are elderly. They give her a strange look but none dared to say anything to her.

One man did stand out the most. His outfit was slightly different from the rest. It seemed to be designed in the best material possible. The color of gold flows all over him along with rings that were made of silver. He is a man that holds authority and did not have any fear or worries. The man haves a lively glow in his eyes but they are not hostile in any way. He stands on a platform in the back of the room, but he stands down and made his way towards Lightning.

"Can I help you miss?" His voice is calm and strong. Lightning examines his aging face. He is definitely way older than her. "Can you tell me where the nearest settlement is? An accident happened and your people saved me. If you don’t mind i would like to be on my way ,but i'm going to need my gunblade."

He smiles but it is different from the lady's smile. His almost seems real. Almost. "Tell me miss…?"  
"Lightning," she informs him. "What were you doing in such a crazy place to begin with? Our hunters found you in such a horrible state!" He shivers at the thought. "We were worried you were not going to make it but it looks like you are doing better than we thought. I am sure you did not come this way to hear my concern. Now, you want to know the closest settlement? I will be more than glad to help you with your problem. As for your weapon, it can be found in the blacksmith shop not to far from here. The owner is someone I trusted dearly and I am sure he will be more than willing give it back. Come back here after you retrieve it and I will send one my men to show you the way to the settlement."  
He shakes his head in disappointment. "Where are my manners? My name is Shepard. I am the leader of our village Cocoon.” 

“Why is it named that?” Lightning tilts her head slightly. “You are aware we are on Gran Pulse now,right?”

“Now, I am fully aware that we no longer inhabit our beautiful planet but we got to use what we have. So we broke off from that blind society and created our own and name it after our former home." Lightning still seems unsure. "Some people here act a bit obsess with Cocoon. This needs to stop before it gets worse. These people need to stop hiding in the shadows and move on with their lives." His eyebrows wants to connect and Shepard feels the need to defend his people. "My people have been through so much. Everything was taken from them and you expect them just over it?"

"I never said it was easy but it needs to be done." Lightning thinks her next plan out. "I know people that can help. You can at least consider Guardian Corp helping out. They will be able to deliver food and bring medical supplies here." He shakes his head in disagreement. The man is long set in his ways and Lightning feels there is nothing she can do to change his mind. "Fine. I will get my weapon and leave."

Shepard huffs loudly as Lightning rudely walks out of the building and away from him. She wants to leave this place and never return. This village was full of crazies and Lightning was not spending one more minute in this helhole. The blacksmith shop is very easy to find. Outside of it she sees five teenagers hanging around it. The part that worries Lightning is not the fact that they are there but that they are not doing anything. The three boys and two girls are just standing around. There is no laughter in the air and a grin on a face. They talk so low that Lightning's sharp ears could not catch anything. She was planning on ignoring them and entering the shop, but the thought of abandoning them to the hands of this Shepard guy was not a pleasing thought. 'I could do a small investigation. They must know something useful.'

When she gets closer the young adults cower. "You should not be here. The leader said that outsiders are bad." One of the older ones states with a shivering voice. Two of them walk off and soon the rest, except the one that spoke to her, too left.  
His shakes in his boots as if he was standing before a monster but Lightning is not even acting hostile to them. "Can I ask you a couple questions?" The young boy gasps before running off and shouting a "no."  
'So much for that plan.'

The only logical thing to do now is to get her weapon and go.She will tell the Guardian Corp. to investigate about this village. The door slides open with ease and Lightning takes in the room's appearance. It is dark inside when compared to the outside light and the place holds an odd vibe that she could not shake off. "Can I help you with anything?" A young boy that is maybe seventeen stands behind a counter. There is a rusted sword in his hand and a cloth in the other. "Yes. You have my gunblade." He blinks. "I think I saw it in the back. I will go get to for you after I finish cleaning this up." Lightning could not waste anymore time there. She needs to assure Serah that she is safe. 

"I will get it then. I don't have all day." His eyes flash fear and his hands begin to tremble. "It will only take a few more minutes." Lightning pushes her away past the counter and near the door. "And it will only take me seconds to retrieve it myself."  
She forces her way in and the boy frantically tries to stop her. "The leader will not be happy with you once he finds out!" The room is a dark storage room filled with useless items but somewhere in there is her gunblade. Luckily for her it stands out the most.

It lies sadly in one of the corners and Lighting scoops it up quickly. "Was that so hard?" She turns back to the boy. "Things go a lot better wh-" Lighting attention pulls away from the kid as the surrendering finally sunk in. There was something foul in the air and flies buzzed loudly in one of the boxes in the room. Staring at the box she could not help but to notice blood dripping out from it.

(SUMBIT)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you everyone for you support. Please leave a comment and/or kudo. Also if you have an idea, comment, opinion, then please inform me. I am very open minded and will be glad to hear what you think. Or if you want to see something in story as a little add on or idea....


	4. When the Dead are Alive

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> //Things just keep going wrong for the older Farron. However, the village is not her only problem when she runs into an old enemy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> // I finally was able to update! Sadly I have been having computer problems but I was able to fix it by pressing random buttons.  
> WARNING(s): blood, gore, violence, and Lightning's temper.  
> Disclaimer: I do not get paid in gum nor do I own Final Fantasy XIII.
> 
> Chapter IV: When the Dead are Alive
> 
> "You want someone to hurt like you  
>  You want to share  
>  what you have been through  
>  You love the things I say I'll do  
>  The way I hurt myself again  
>  just to get back at you  
>  You take away when I give in  
>  My life  
>  My pride   
>  is broken"  
>  -Linkin Park, Points of Authority

(SUBMIT)

Slowly but surely the blood pours smoothly out from the corners of the box. The disgusting scent of copper conquers the room, and the room feels more humid than before. Lightning almost did not want to breathe the air in; worried that it is tainted in some way. She could only stare at the box in shock and slight curiosity. With a frown on her face she moves in direction to the object.

Before Lightning could have gotten closer the boy, who is standing near the door, runs out the room. She considers chasing after him but by the time she could have comprehend what was going on, he is gone. Instead, she pays attention to the box before her.

The closer she gets to it, the more her stomach got into knots. In all her life she had never witness anything like this. This situation is just horrible and is something she knew she may never blow off.

After all, who can? This place is Hell and these nut-jobs are not helping disprove the fact. Luckily for her, the villagers own little to no weapons. Yes, she is out number completely but Lightning had taken on multiple enemies before. Horrible weapons and improperly trained guards will not even a warm up for an experienced soldier and former l'cie, such as herself.

Now standing in front of the box, Lightning strangely finds it hard to bring herself to open it. 'Just do it. You need to find out what is going on.' The voice inside her head keeps repeating over and over. She holds her breath and cuts open the box in one clean motion.  
However, Lightning regrets doing so. The increase of stench eats up every inch around her and nearly causes the trained soldier to gag. 'Calm down. Take control of the situation.' Lightning mentally reassured herself. Inside the box was littered with bones, organs, meat. Human skin was burned to the sides of the box and insects crawled around the mangled body. There is not one inch not covered by blood and the sight horrifies the ex-l'cie.

Before Lightning could do anymore, the front door bust open. Footsteps soon invade the dim room. A lot of voices seem to shouting out words to her. Lightning withdraws away from the box once she hears the newcomers. She frowns at the thought of having trouble getting out of the village. That is the last thing she needs. Lightning steadies her blade in her hand without thinking. Her hand throbs in pain and it protest to let go of the weapon. Some how, Lightning forces herself to deal with the sting running across her arm.

The storage door then slams open. Three guards rushed in but stop at the sight of the intimidating soldier. Hiding behind the village guards is the same boy that works behind the counter. Lightning feels more rage built up at the sight of him. The punk is pinning the crime on her. The boy points to Lightning and shouts, "That's her!" They look at her in disgust. It is the same look someone would give to a wild animal that was causing trouble. The same look that is giving to a monster; a l'cie.

Lightning is all too familiar with the glare shooting at her. By now it means nothing to the fearsome soldier. "Kill her!" One of the guards shouts. The men charge at her with swords in their hands. Lightning is very grateful to see blades instead of guns. It makes her job a lot easier.

Her weapon switches smoothly into to its gun mode and Lightning aims and fires. The deadly bullet pierce through one of the guard's skin. Hitting him directly in the knee cap. The man screams in pain and quickly falls to the ground. His obvious pain startles his coworkers, who hurry to his aid. That is a rookie mistake.

Both men are so concern about their friend that they forget about Lightning. Lightning is knows the rules of war and combat. One of the big one's is to keep your guard up at all times because your enemy will not hesitate to take advantage of the situation. Oh, how right that rule applied at the moment.

The Lt. pushes her way to the ill trained guards and punches one directly in the face. The force sends his head flying to one side. On the same guy she does a quick leg swipe. His body losses a sense of balance and finally gives in to gravity and falls to the floor. During that time the other guard tries sneaking up on Lightning.

The man swings the dull side of the blade towards her but even then Lightning is not going to give him the satisfaction of landing a hit. Lightning ducks under the weapon. This time she decides to show off her blade. With a flick of the wrist it transforms and Lightning shoots up. She raise the blade and perfectly slices the man. The weapon runs across him like butter.   
The man gives a short yell but it dies down quickly. Moments he too, is on the floor with the rest of his friends. Now it is only Lightning and the boy that works at the shop.  
He looks down in shock as he trembles. "You…you really are a monster! Get away from me you demon!" Lightning, now covered in blood, moves over in closer to the boy. With the dim lighting and eerie aura of the room, it made Lightning more intimidating than normal. She grabs him by the collar of his shirt and tugs him closer to her. "You are going to tell me what is going on here and don't bother lying to me. I am not in the mood for games. I've been thrown out of the sky, almost eating by a wild animal, and trap in this god forsaken village. If you don't give me answers now you will regret that you ever encountered me. Now…start talking."  
His body trembles and Lightning could have sworn she hears his teeth chattering. "Fine! Just do not hurt me. Our leader Shepard told me to store…that box in here. I have nothing to do with it."

"Why?"

"I-I have no clue. I just do as I am told. If I followed his orders I was sure to get a good position and praise from him. Please let me go." His voice begins to crack and tears start to form in his eyes. Lightning holds on to him for a few more seconds. Once she realizes that she will not getting more out of him, she lets go.  
Letting go of the younger boy she makes her way to the exit. Her gunblade is still firm in her hands and a determine expression on her face. She was going to have a talk with this Shepard.

(SUBMIT)

"Nothing still, huh?" Serah asks in disappointment. She slowly glides to the couch in the living room. Her sister is still missing. True, Lightning has been missing for less than a week, but every second she is gone it eats up the younger Farron. The dangers in Pulse are terrifying that even the government wants nothing to do with it. That did not help her panic. For the Government is taking its sweet time in trying to find her sister.

She could not just believe her luck. 'My parents are gone and my only sister might be dead too.' Serah allows a small tear to escape but she could not help to feel ashamed of herself. The countless hours of grudges and arguments, but they are still sisters. Family is never going to be perfect. They are bound to fight and disagree with each other but the timing of it all was just plain horrible. Fighting and then going missing. Everything feels like a depressing movie and Serah knows that sometimes those movies have a horrible ending that Serah wished she would be able to avoid.

"I'm sorry Serah, but no one can find her. Do not worry. She is Lightning." Snow smirks at the thought of the soldier being perfectly fine, eating some food. Still, there is a twinge of doubt and fear in his heart but he is not going to let Serah see it. He needs to be strong for her. He needs to be her rock while Lightning is not home.

Serah allows her feet to fidget in worry. "Snow, what am I supposed to do? They found the helicopter and the pilot but Lightning was not there. What if she is out there? Worse! What if she is badly hurt? I could never forgive myself then." Her final words choke.  
Snow moves in closer and hugs the distressed Farron. Serah weeps harder but she did not care. All she cares about is her sister’s safe return.

(SUBMIT)

They fall. All of the guards trying to protect Shepard collapse; many of them now dead. Shepard stands fearlessly as Lightning approaches. He had a feeling that the soldier would find out about his work and frankly he could care less. They all got what they had coming to them. Lightning will too soon. "It is good to see you again Lightning."  
Lightning is not amused by his tone.

His people are bleeding out before him and he did not care for not even one of them. "Cut the crap. You have ten seconds to explain what the hell is going on here." She moves closer to him. Lightning points her Blazefire saber to his face. This is his only warning.  
"There is no need to so hostile. We are all friends here. I was going to tell you anyways. So sit down and listen. After the fall of Cocoon many people felt lost...abandon. They did not know who to turn to or who to blame. I was one of those people until I meet a man. His name was Ian and guess what Lightning. The young man told me everything." His eyes darken slightly but Lightning's curiosity peeked.

"What do you mean by everything?"He nods his head. "Yes, about you and your little band of L'cie. Everything that happened to us is because of you but there is more to it I know thought." He moves in closer to Lightning. "I know the truth about your past. Ian told me about the secrets about your parents." Lightning feels her blood boil inside her. "You bastard. Who is Ian?" There was a smirk on his face and his body posture relaxes as Lightning's tensed. 

"I find it disgusting on what a child of your years could do, like you once were, would do that to another person. You have no one to blame for your misery except yourself. Lightning, you dug up your own grave and many others years ago. It's time that you paid for it."

"I know I am no saint but I am not a bad person either." Her voice makes it sound like she was trying to reassure herself that. "You on the other hand, you are a hypocrite. You say I ruined lives but what about you? All you did was trick innocent people to do your dirty work while you keep your hands clean. I do things for the well being of my family. You and I are on two different levels." She was not going to let him get to her.

"Well, then. What are you going to do now? Kill me? The world will only see you as a criminal if you do so. If you think you can scare me with your weapon, you thought wrong." Shepherd's voice quivers now in fear. He tries looking brave but now he was long past that disguise. Lightning shakes her head in disagreement. "That's where you are wrong. If I kill you now, no one will figure out it was me. Even if they did find out it was me, I can simply say you were trying to kill me which is sort of not a lie. You should have known better. After all you said you did know my past. So, just give up and tell me where this Ian is at. There is no way out of this."

The man stayed silent. There was a frown now on his face. Lightning could see the older man dig his hand in to his palm. They stand in silence until a loud, unsettling sound rings out. Lightning naturally moves away. It is then that Lightning finally recognizes the glass in one of the windows shattering. Soon, Shepard's body falls as his blood flies into the sky as a bullet goes straight through his head.

Someone fired from outside the building.

The thought worries Lightning but she does not allow it to affect her performance. Nothing was going to scare Lightning Farron away. She puts distance from the Shepherd's dead body and crouches near one of the walls. Lightning keeps her head low as she puts herself in an army crawl position. She moves to the exit as best she can in her position.

Another shot is fired.

Lightning hears it-no-feels it barely miss her. Who ever is firing, is messing with her. They think her life is a fun game. It is these kinds of people that sickens Lightning. Still, she needs to keep on moving or at least get out of range of the shooter, who, Lightning haves no clue where they are. In a desperate attempt to get out, she sprints to the door. The shooter must have notice because a bullet glazes against her arm. The pain forces her to move faster. Lightning rams her way out the door and back outside into the village. It is quite and gives the fake illusion of being safe but she is not. Not out in the open. Now Lightning is a sitting duck just waiting to be shot at. She knows she has only one option.

Run.

So she does so. Lightning sprints to one of the back of the buildings as more gunfire goes off. This time it hits the dirt where her foot was once at. She kept pushing herself more and more. Lightning runs so fast that she lives up to her name. Even when she begins to feel tired she keeps on running. When Lightning is sure she added distance between her and the village, she decides to do a slow run. Eventually it changes into walking. There is no noise around her. The forest around her becomes less dense but Lightning pushes further in. She has no clue where she is going but that did not matter right now. Her first priority is to get far away as humanly possible from that village. So, Lightning continues to walk...for hours.  
Due to the calmness, Lightning tenses up when soft footsteps come out from behind one of the trees. Naturally, she reaches for her gunblade. "You should not be so jumpy Farron." The famine voice catches her off guard. The worse part is that she recognizes it.

Soon a group of PSICOM soldiers comes out from hiding. There is maybe about seven of them. They are not aiming their guns at her and in no way were they acting aggressive. It feels very abnormal to Lightning that she is no longer being hunted down by them. It is kind of sad now that she thinks about. She is no longer a wanted fugitive. One last person stepped out into the clearing.

Jihl Nabaat.

Lightning gives a low growl at the woman. God she hates her. Jihl has caused Lightning, and her companions, nothing but trouble. There still is another problem though. "How are you alive? Last I saw you got killed." Lightning questions is straight to the point.  
Jihl smirks slightly at Lightning's confusion. "I will be more than glad to tell you once you come with me." Lightning crosses her arms over her chest. "I am not stupid Nabaat. Why are you and your goons here?" They could not have just randomly bumped into Lightning in the middle of nowhere.

"The Guardian Corp had been questioning us about your location and why you have not reported back to them. When we told them that you were not with us, they began to make wild speculations that PSICOM did something to you. Of course, they did not believe us." Jihl explained.

Lightning sighs and shakes her head in disbelief. "You only came looking for me to save PSICOM's image." It is no question. Lightning knows how these people worked.  
"Precisely," and Jihl was not denying it. As much as Lightning hated to admit it but that was something she had to respect. Lightning always disliked it when people justified their actions, or beat around the bush but this woman was always to the point.

"Even so, why should I go with you?" Jihl waves her arm. "You don't have to come with us. We will just be on our way then and you can stay here lost in the dangerous wilds…with...whatever it is that you are wearing. I will be sure to tell your sister that you denied our help and we may even tell the Guardian Corp where we last saw you. That way they would have an idea where your dead body is located." Lightning knows she is right but the thought of going with her former enemy is very unsettling. Still, there is one matter unresolved. "So was it your men that shoot Shepard?"

"Pardon?" Nabaat looks confused. This in return confuse Lightning. "The man in the village. He was the leader there. Did you order one of your men to kill him?" Nabaat shakes her head. "We have yet to even arrive there. Whatever you are talking about, it was not caused by PISCOM." Lightning feels worry bubbling inside her about this situation. There is a man out there with deadly aim, killing people. "Do not worry about it. My men will get on the case. Now, are you coming with us or not?" Lightning thinks about it for a moment even though she knows she did not need to. Without saying another word, she walks past the PSICOM soldiers. "Let's get out here."

(SUBMIT)

There was a limit to Lightning's composure. "Wow! I can not believe I get to talk to the Lightning Farron! I have heard so many great stories of you." And this guy was pushing it. "I mean…it was pretty cool of what you did when you were a l'cie. That must have taken a lot of courage." Lightning tightens her fist. She knows that there were some people out there that…admired her, but rarely meet any.

"It was so cool when you and your companions entered Eden. I was still in training at the time but when I saw you guys on the news, it was awesome. I don't think I could have ever done something like that!" All Lightning wanted was a calm walk back to civilization. This man was not helping in any way. Not wanting to lose her temper, she quickened her pace. The other troops gives a heavy sigh as Nabaat somehow ignores the whole thing as she leads them back to a PSICOM transportation vehicle.  
"So, anyways I thought it-"  
"Shut up," Lightning could not take it any more. "Be quiet for the rest of the journey! Please." It is her only and final warning. That is something Lightning infrequently does. "Gee. I am sorry. I know I can go overboard sometimes. In fact, my commanding officer say's I do talk too much. I just get so-"

"Nabaat! Do something about him or I will." Lightning says dangerously. The man talking, yelps at her outburst and Jihl glances back at the two. "Mr. Jones, please refine from bothering Lt. Farron." The man named Jones nods his head in disappointment. Frankly, she did not care if he got his feelings hurt. He needs to get used to being a soldier or he is not going to last long. Still, the man had a friendly nature that reminds her of Snow.  
The thought of Snow made her shiver.

(SUBMIT)

"Why did you not want me to kill Lightning? My sniping skills are good enough to get rid of her. Isn't that what you wanted?"

"Of course I do! Just not yet. No. She needs to pay for her crimes first. Lightning Farron will   
rue the day she was born. Plus, the world needs to know of her in a different way. "

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> //Please till me what you think or leave a kudo. This story is (originally) on FF.net.


	5. Nights Like These

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter V: Nights like these.  
> "When your friend have disappeared.  
> are you afraid of what you hear  
> do you feel like you're alone  
> or hiding  
> from something scaring  
> you inside"  
> \- Advent, Better Than ok

(SUBMIT)  
The phone rings. It rings and rings and rings but no one answers. "Damn. Why aren't they answering?" Lightning huffs in annoyance. ''You would think that if they were worried about me then they would answer the first time I called.” Maybe she is overreacting...ok... but when you are considered 'MIA' you would think people would pay more attention when you were trying to prove that you were not dead.

At last, here was Lightning Farron. Wanting to, so much, put her family at ease even though she followed PSICOM. Sure, she may have been hesitant about following PSICOM but with not having many options, Lightning had let them lead her to one of the local towns. To her surprise they let her borrower one of the phones so that she could call her sister, and friends, to let them know that she saw perfectly fine. They gave her food to eat and clothes to wear. The kindness bothers her but she tries not to allow it to consume her.  
So, when the phone was handed to her, Lightning dialed up her house number. To her surprise…no one was picking up the phone. The Lt. found it strange and even frustrating because knowing Serah she would be hovering over the phone for hour-days to make sure that Lightning was fine. The lack of answering almost makes the older Farron feel lonely.   
Of course, there was nothing the Farron could do now. "I should leave a message." It seemed like the right thing to do. If they were not going to pick up the phone then Lightning can calm their hearts by letting them know that she was not dead. Yes, it was a good idea.

"Hello, this is the Farron residence! We are not here at the moment so please leave a message at the beep." Serah's pre-recorded voice plays and hearing her sister's voice makes her feel guilty for some weird reason. 'Why should I be? I did nothing wrong…' Yeah, why should she be guilty? She did nothing wrong. If anything, she was in the right. She worked her butt off her entire life and well-Lightning deserves better.  
"Beep!"  
"Serah? This is me, Lightning. I know you are worried about me but I am fine. So, don't worry. Listen, I know you are going to want me to come home but…I still have a mission to do." Lightning pause. Her mind drifts to the argument she had with Serah before all this. 'Don't tell me the reason I feel bad is because of the fight we had.' As prideful she was, Lightning knows when to fold, but the words are hard to come out even though she truly wants to simply say "Sorry." But she knows a simple sorry could not fix all her problems.  
"I want you to know that I am sorry what happened-you know. I…you know that I would never do anything to hurt you. Never. You are my sister and I will always be there to protect you. What I did that day...I was way out of line. I promise it will never happen again. We can talk more once I get back or when you hear this and give me a call. Bye."

Lightning quickly hangs up the phone before she could make a fool out of herself. It feel weird to apologies but it already makes her feel some much better about herself. The last time she truly said sorry was after the whole l'ice event. Even so, Lightning prayed that she would never make the same mistake twice. Yes, this time she was going to truly make an effort to make it up to her sister. The thought puts her mind even more at ease. It did not help completely but it was . Lightning folds the phone and looks down the hallway. Who was she supposed to give the phone to? It is not hers. With a shrug of her shoulders she stuffs the small device in her pocket of the uniform they allow her to borrow. 'Sure, nobody will notice it being gone for a bit.'

Walking down the hallway, she makes her way to the front building exit. With the place being pretty small, she makes it to the front in less than one minute. Walking past the front desk, she is already pushing the front doors open. "Excuse me, miss Farron!" Lightning looks to see who calls her out. Her eyes shoot to the only people in the room, one man and woman that work in the front desk. "Yes?"  
The man speaks up, "Miss Nabaat would like to have a word with you before you leave." Lightning hates the idea of having to talk to the woman she never cared for. Still, the only thing she could do now is cooperate. "Right. Where is she then?" The woman types many buttons on the computer and after a few seconds of waiting she gives an answer. "Second floor. Third door to the right." Lightning gives a slightly exaggerated 180 spin and force herself in one if the elevators that is held next to the front desk. She smashes the second floor button to blow off some hatred.

Jihl Nabaat.

God she hates her with a passion. Nabaat always has that personality that disgustes her. She reminds Lightning of a Tonberry. Always having an innocent look but behind her outer appearance, she is deadly. In fact, Lightning even heard a rumor that Nabaat only wears glasses to give a fake, deceiving mask. Lightning takes her time getting out of the elevator. She makes her way in the directions that was given to her. Then, there she is, standing in one of the hallways. The woman keeps a neutral look as always but there was something different about her body language that makes Lightning uncomfortable. Still, she is Lightning Farron. "Can I have a word with you?" She questions but it comes out more as a demand. Lightning stops herself from rolling her eyes. Even though she is in PSICOM and Lightning is in the GC, Lightning knows it would be "rude" to make such a face to another officer. 

Lightning gives a nod; not really interested in talking with the older woman.  
Nabaat gestures into one of the offices that she stands by. Lightning cautiously trails behind the woman. Once Lightning enters into the room, Nabaat speaks up. "On behave of PSICOM I would like to extend an apology-" Lightning raises her eyebrow. "-for the situation that happened back in that village. Our men are dealing with it was we speak."  
"But that is not why you called me in here for, right?" Lightning is not stupid. She knows that PSICOM did everything for a reason. Nabaat smirkes slightly but hides it quickly. "Straight to the point I see. We understand that you were sent here to help with some…problems we have been getting in the local towns. We know that it must be hard with the Guardian Corp. sending you to multiple locations. It must be hard on your L'cie friends and it also leaves them… so...expose."

Lightning snorts out. "Stop beating around the bush and just tell me where you are going with this." The can feel her blood boiling at the last comment. 'Expose...'  
"I am saying that you are wasting your talent in the GC. You will benefit more if you join the ranks of PSICOM." Lightning could not believe her ears. Was she offering her a spot in PSICOM? Lightning feels sick at the thought of being part of them. After all the things that they did to her and her family….There is no way she would be able to forget any of those events of her fighting endless waves PSICOM. How they treated them as trash,and all proclaiming on how they were going to kill them by their hands. That sudden conditioning forced her to fear and hate PSICOM.

They spent the longest time trying to reap away her life and here they were…offering her a job. "What ever gave you the idea of asking me to join PSICOM?" Her voice is cold and commanding. Lightning is not going to deal with this. They must have a reason. Was it for power? Maybe they wanted to trick the media to show that they were not bad guys. Are they pulling her into a trap?There are hundreds of different possibilities…yet they were all negative.Nabaat glides her hand on the table and her face remains neutral. "Like I said, you are a talented soldier that can go far if given the chance. Sadly, the Guardian Corp. is completely disorganized and does not see your true strength."

Lightning huffs.

"So you guys want to help out of the kindness of your heart? Sorry but I am not going to buy that trash. You are going to have to try a lot better than that." Lighting states. Everything is wrong. Completely wrong. They must be plotting SOMETHING! She is no fool to the system. When Lightning smells something fishy, she tends to be right. Nabaat thinks for a moment. As Lightning stares at the other woman, she notices a smirk fades on Nabaat's face but it is gone as quickly as it came. It left a sickening feel in her stomach and her heart pounds slightly harder for a second. Her interior keeps reassuring herself that everything will be fine. Even so, her outer shell shows no difference. That was one thing Lightning was grateful for. She will always be proud of the mask she put on.

"If you really must know…." Nabaat starts. "You see after you and the rest of your l'cie friends "helped" the world. The government just simply does not know what to do with you. Some want you arrested and trailed for your actions. Others think everyone owes you. My point is that things will only be going down hill from here. If you are in PSICOM then there is a less chance anyone will be bothering you and your friends any time soon. You can be pardon for the events that transpired."

Lightning shakes her head. "But why? Why help? I was your enemy at one point. Your orders were to kill me. Now you are trying to save us. You understand why I am questioning all this, right?" Nabaat leans over to her slightly. "We are just simply looking out for you. We are not always out to kill you. I think we can all benefit with a small transfer."  
The comment almost makes Lightning laugh. A ridicules response like that was much unexpected. She just knows that there was more to it. There always is more.  
Lightning straightens up as she moves towards the door. "Well, thanks for your concern but I can look out for myself. I don't need you to be worrying about me. I am not some defenseless girl." Her words come out like poison.

"You don't have to make up your mind now. You can join PSICOM anytime you feel like it. After all, you know where to find us." There was a hint of displeasure in her voice but her face shows a lack of surprise.The woman probably knows that the chance of Lightning saying "Sure! I would love to join", was not going to happen. "You can take your leave then." 

"Actually, I need to know where the town Nettage is located. I was originally sent out to help with the local crime there because PSICOM," she adds extra emphases on the word "PSICOM", "can not control the areas under them." Nabaat smirks once more at her comment. The attitude that the Farron always carried never died even she became a l'cie. It was her cocky remarks is what used to get her in trouble but no one ever seemed to challenged her once she established a record.  
"Of course, follow me."

(SUBMIT)

Lightning slips herself into the passenger in the vehicle that was provided for her. It is a standard military vehicle. The driver is a low rank PSICOM personal. Hiis helmet covers his features but Lightning sees his body posture change once she was in. It did not surprise her much. Now days, everyone either hated/fear her or loved her. So, it is not new to see even a PSICOM officer feeling awkward being near her. Maybe it did not that she might have "accidentally" killed so many PSICOM soldiers.

"Ready?" His voice shakes in nervousness. Lightning turns in his direction and gives a small nod before looking out the window. From what she was told it was going to be a long ride and it was going to be a pain when she arrived to this town of she never even heard of. With the lack of knowledge of the place, Lightning glances to the folder in her hands. Yes, it was to brief her in everything she needed to know for her mission. Yet, she had not even opened it.

'Might as well kill time with some reading.' By the time Lightning flips it open the car begins to move. The folder is thick. Many are reports or investigations that PSICOM had trouble solving. There was a record of over fourteen murders in the town that PSICOM is aware of. She picks up the third paper in the stack. It shows a picture of a middle age man. The paper states how the man was found dead in his house. The poor guy was shot right between the eyes. Lightning scans his records and showed no criminal background. In fact, the man was well known for helping troubled teens and donating a large somes of Gil. An outstanding memeber of society. The next victim was a fourteen year old girl. The child was stabbed in the throat and she bled to death. Her school records show that she was your average student and an interview with her parents explaining that she was a good kid. The more she read the worst the killings got. It ranged from hanging to drowning and even placing acid on the victim.

It sickens Lightning to see someone do such horrible things to another human being. Going deeper into the file, Lightning finds it harder to believe it is all done by one person. 'How can someone get away with so much?' She thinks bitterly but stops that thought when realizing that it's happened before. After all, she is Lightning Farron. One of the l'cie that was once hunted down and here she is…back in her old job but is now more recognized.

(SUBMIT)

Once the vehicle comes to a stop, Lightning drags herself out and comes to realized that nightfall is coming. The sun is still high enough to where the land is brighten greatly but she knew that was not going to last long. The driver got out of the car and gestures to a fairly large building in front of them. "Sorry for the inconvenience but this is the best place we can give you to sleep. The barracks are overflowing but we were able to rent this small apartment. I know it's not the b-"

"It will do."

Lightning did not truly mind, after all the building itself is in great shape compared to many she has seen before. The building that is seven stories. The outer walls are coated with a rich, creamy color. All the windows were covered by red curtains. "Alright then. I guess I should not keep you waiting then. Tomorrow, you need to report to the main PSICOM base. They will put you on the right track. Is there anything you will be needing?" His last question was a more personal question than one they would regularly ask.

That's when it dawn on Lightning. "Basic supplies would be nice." After all the hell she's been through she never had proper items likes: decent food, extra clothing, or even extra bullets for her gunblade. All her supplies were in the helicopter when it crashed and now it maybe just raw dust.

 

"Oh! I was unaware of that. I am sorry! Errrrr...I can look into bring all necessary items but I am sure the manager of this place may have extra clothes and food." The young soldier states in an hopeful way. The poor guy did not want to tell her one thing and then the true owner of the business tell Lightning something completely different. "Thanks, I will be heading in then." Lightning points to the doors of the building. The man didn't get to utter a word before she begins to make her way inside. "Hope it works out for you!" Lightning turns as the soldier waves her off. She is partly disappointed on how laid back he is. She would not even want to consider him a proper troop. Lightning enters the building, gently shaking her head. All of the new recruits lately have just been...lacking in many categories. The door shut quietly behind her.

(SUBMIT)

The soldier waves her away. "She seems nice. I wonder why people judged her to be such a mean person." He jumps into the vehicle and turns the engine on. "Then again she was a bit intimidating but I guess she just doing her job." He continues to talking to himself in a playful manner. Why shouldn't he? His job is easy. Walking around all day, drive around aimlessly at times, oh- and he could not forget his awesome pay. He grins inside his helmet at the thought of being paid.  
"Beep!"

He raised his hand up to the microphone built in his helmet. "Yes?"  
"Did you finish dropping off the package?"

He rolls his neck in an attempt to pop it."Yeah...do not worry about it. She is in there. Now... I will be seeing that thousand Gil right? You know its not easy to infiltrate PSICOM. The punks sure made it hard to get in." The line stays quiet for a moment.  
"I am afraid you will not be seeing it. You should be grateful that we are allowing you to be honest, you make me sick. A PSICOM willing to betray another soldier for money. Very dishonest." The soldier shivers at the voice. Sure he is mad that he is not getting his money but...the way the unknown person said it all, it terrifies him. "God, I hate her! All the crap that she did AND WHAT? Everyone let's it slide? What a shame, right? Of course," he pauses for a second. Almost as if he was smirking on the other line. "...I have to tie up all loose ends."

The PSICOM troop tightens his grip on the steering wheel. Sweat begins to build up in his suit due to the sudden nervousness that starts to over come him. Not thinking about anything, he applies more pressure to the gas. The speed increase. "Sadly, you are one of them." The line cut off. By now he was breathing heavy but forces himself to take in slower oxygen. "I will be fine." Before he could reassure himself once more...the vehicle explodes.

(SUBMIT)

Lightning gives a disgusted look. No. Just no! Lightning could never believe her luck. "I hope you will find the clothing to your liking." A young girl, that was maybe 18 years old, handed Lightning a loose black shirt and torn, green shorts. Apparently, when Lightning asked for extra clothing, one of the workers kindly offered her the clothing, stating that the people in one of the rooms left it behind. Lightning could see why.

Now, Lightning was not a spoiled child growing up but having to wear this was a bit below her. It made her feel awkward having take the clothes. It was one thing she always enforced was to dress decently as often as possible. So baggy, torn clothing did not really fit her style. There was also the fact that people tend to give her the pity look when seeing her taking items in desperation when she was younger. The looks on their faces angers her even to today. Still, she did not have anything else and she would not be able to get more clothing until tomorrow. She is going to have to deal with it for the day.

Not wanting to be rude Lightning nods her head. "It will due. Thank you." The younger girl smiles. "That's good. Here! Let me show you to your room." Lightning follows the girl into the elevator. "Your room is on the third floor. Its nothing special but we set it up the best we could on such short notice... especially when we heard you were coming here." The last part was mumbled lowly.  
"You heard of me too?"  
The girl almost jumps in excitement. "Who has not heard of you? You are Lightning Farron!" They exit the elevator. "You...saved us. You saved the world. You are a hero!"  
Lightning thinks her next words carefully. Last time someone called her a hero, Lightning crushed their dreams quickly. In doing so, caused Serah to scolded her a if she was the younger sibling. "Trust me. I am no hero." Snow may have gladly taken the complement...but not her. The young girl frowns.

“You will always be one to me.”

 

(SUBMIT)

By now the sky was conquered by the moon. Darkness hovers over Pulse but even though it was bleak, there was a feeling of calmness in the air. It was times like these that, to Lightning, the world was in a state if true equanimity. The fresh air flows in the room with no problem as Lightning left the window open. Normally, wherever she slept, the window was shut tightly.

Her first night there was different. When entering the room she was staying in, she discovered that the air conditioning was broken. With the hot temperature increasing each day, she was left with no choice but to break open the window. Not like it bother her much but Lightning can sometimes be paranoid. Its not like she had anything to worry about anytime soon. That was mostly because she lay on the bed restlessly sitting in the middle of the room.

She was simply not tired.  
The only sound comes from the cheap fan that blew hot air in her direction and that was it. No other being is there to at least reassure her that she not by herself. So she feels slightly lonely in her room. Not that solitude worried her. It is just, as time pressed, she begins to draw close to other people. True, she is not going to spill her emotions to anyone anytime soon but now she is beginning to come to a certain comfort stage with others.

Oh, Etro she is getting soft.

(SUBMIT)

"We are home!" Serah shouts loudly so the whole household can hear. The young Farron pushes the front door open as Snow trails behind with grocery bags. It is late at night but due to the fact that they gained so many guests, they tend to run out of food faster than what they normally would. So they were left with having to go out and buy food for the days to come.

Fang is sitting on one of the couches that resided in Lightning's house. She turns around to see the two love birds walking into the house. "Hey! ‘elcome back little Farron. " Her words are slightly slurred together in a fashion that Serah was not used to hearing. Serah gently places the two bags, in her hands, on the floor. Snow nearly shoots a confuse look but moves on into the kitchen. He wanted nothing to do with this. "Hi, Fang." She glance around the room. "Where is everybody?" The house is far too quiet. Fang slips a lazy smirk on her face. Her eyes are half closed and when Serah walks closer to the older woman, she notice the five bottles of alcohol around her.  
All of them empty.  
"Fang? Are you ok?" Serah moves around the couch to face the warrior. She never seen her like this.  
"Me? I feel...pretty...alright. I feel great! Alive! Serah, let's go out and fight a Behemoth! Like, right this fucking second." Fang shoots up from her spot. The action scares Serah but she feels more fear when Fang stumbles over her own feet. Fang catches herself before she could crash into the table that is place in the middle of the room. 'Lightning will be mad if she breaks her table.'  
"What's wrong with you? Are you...drunk?" Serah questioned.  
Fang blinks a few times. "Of course not. Where would you got a horrible idea like tha missy?" This time her words are clearer. Almost normal. Now, Serah is even more confused. It’s no wonder why Lightning loses her temper with the warrior. 

"Are you really drunk or just messing with me?" Serah's words comes out faster than what they normally would. Her annoyance in Fang always did bring out the worst in her...maybe she got it from Lightning. Both sisters are short tempered and the household knows for a fact that upsetting either Farron is a stupid move. That could possibly be why Fang did it often. Who does not like to press their luck and run away like a winner?  
"Errr...I...I might had a few to drink. Or a lot. I don't really remember. I was moving crap round and then BOOM! I found a shit load of beer. Why do you...? Why do you guys even have alcohol? Aren't you..aren't you a bit tooooo short to be drinking. Then sunshine does not seem like the drinking kind." Fang giggles lightly at the thought of Lightning drunk.

"Fang you don't need to a certain height to drink. That still does not answer the question of where everybody is." Serah rolls her eyes and glances around the room to see more bottles of beer lying, empty, on the floor. 'How much did she drink?' Fang, on the other hand, collapse right back on the couch. "Hope is stuck in the tree...that one in your backyard. He...he has been up there for a couple is hours. He stopped screaming so I think he's dead. Sazh is….somewhere around here and Vanille is...i don’t know to be honest." Fang gives out a small hum.'Where did that girl run off to?'Serah blankly stared at Fang.

"Hope in a tree? A tree! At this hour?” She excuses herself out of the room as calmly as she could. Once out of sight she runs past a few rooms in the house and makes her way to the backyard. ' Why is she so irresponsible! What if Hope is hurt?' There is no noise in the backyard. The only sound was the warm breeze floating by carelessly. A low thunder rumbled suddenly.  
A storm was coming.

"Hope? Are you out here?" She keeps calling out the young teen's name. Their backyard is a great size but it frightens her also to know that they live so close to the wilds. She moves silently through the darkness as she keeps calling the boy's name. "Hope!"  
"Serah? Hey! Up here!" His voice pierce out of the abyss. She frantically looks through the thick leaves in one of the bigger tree they own. Her eyes still have not adjusted to the darkness which made it impossible to see the him. "Hope is that you?"  
She could hear an over exaggerated sigh. "No, I'm Vincent Martella! Yes its me! Can you get me down from here? I am...kind of worried that i'm going to fall." His last words were mumbled softly as to not be heard.  
"Sure. But how did you get up there?"  
Even though it was dark, Serah could see the hesitation he carried. "Fang got a bit too much to drink. So I tried to take away the alcohol away but I couldn't get away from her. Instead, she grabbed my boomerang and ran out here with it. I followed her out here. When I asked for it back, she threw it in this tree and I guess you know the rest. I climbed up here and...well I kind of never thought of a way down."

"Don't worry Hope. I will grab a ladder. I will be back in a second." She thought quickly. Serah takes off yet again, much to Hope's distaste. She runs around the house and up to the garage. There was a small panel next to the door that had many numbers on it. She pushes a mix and confusing pattern and the door slide open.  
"Where is it? -Oh! Sazh?" Sazh stands near one of the workbenches that Lightning owns.  
“What are you doing in here?” He looks up gives a friendly smile. “Nothing much actually. Dajh broke on his toys and i thought i would come in here and try to fix it for him.” He holds up a fairly large toy car. A wheel looks to be missing on it. “I am almost down with it and i hope you don’t mind but Dajh is sleeping in your guest room.”

“I dont’ mind. I am just here to get a ladder.” Serah glance around the room. Her eyes finally sees the ladder in one if the corners. "Ha, there you are." Using ask her strength, she drags the ladder out of the room. “Do you need help there?” Sazh asks even though he is already walking to her. “It would be great if you did.” It weigh a ton to her and her scrawny arms would only carry it so much. However, with little effort, Sazh carries it. “Lead the way.”   
She leads Sazh to the backyard as the sky rumbles even more. "There you are." Hope's voice gave a sounds of relief. "I was wondering what was taking you so long."

"Sorry Hope. This thing weighs more than what I thought it would, but Sazh here gave me a hand." Serah confessed to him. Hope shouts an “ok” from the top as Sazh gently places the ladder on the tree. “Why was that boy up there?” Sazh asks Serah. “Boomerang.”  
"Are talking about me," Hope questions as he carefully gets on the ladder."Yes, Hope we love to gossip about you all the time." By then Hope is safely on the ground. Which he is glad. "Hehehe. Funny." Serah smiles before turning it into a grin. "I have quit the humor!"  
Hope frowns but responds "Is that what you call it?"

"Come on kids, let's go inside." Sazh looks to the sky. “It going to start raining soon. We don't want to get caught in the rain now.” The trio make their way back inside to only be faced with shouting. "I am going to shove my spear so far up your ass, Snow boy!" Serah and Hope glance at each other for a moment while Sazh gives a heavy sigh at the ground. They peak their heads inside the room as if a bomb is in there but they know they were not far from the truth. "What do you think he did?" Hope asks quietly as to not gain Fang's attention. "Not sure, but it sounds bad." Sazh responds. 

In the middle of the room stands Fang with her spear out as she takes a sloppy fighting stance. Snow is slowly putting distance between with his hands up. He is trying his best to hide the smile on his face, knowing that if Fang sees it, he would be dead meat. Just like Lightning, Fang did not take to kindly when someone is taking their seriousness a joke. Especially, when either of them is threatening the person that stupidly reckless. "Fang, calm down." Snow giggles but states the comment a serious as possible. Which is not working out to well.  
A second low rumble responds before Fang could. This time it sounded closer. "No! Don't tell me what to do. I am Oerba Yun Fang, you shit! I can do whatever I want." Fang yells but the tone did not have as much of a deadly threat as before. The comment seems more settle. "Snow." Serah whispered. He turned to her direction and smiled. "Don't worry, baby. I'll be fine. Fang here is just a bit buzzed. I'm sure she means no ha-" A solid punch lands on his face that pushed him back. 

It is a bit less powerful as Lightning's punches, but it sure is comparable. "That's what ya get!" Fang shouts. She let out an obnoxious laugh while Snow gives a small smile. It amazes Serah on how Snow was always such a kind man. He rarely loses his temper and she really respects that about him. Still, it makes her uneasy to see him get hit like that.  
"Come on, Fang. Don't you think you had enough to drink?" Snow tries to reason with her.  
Fang drops her Spear as a flash of Lightning flickers from outside. An explosion of thunder soon follows closely. "Ahhh. You guys are no fun." Her posture relaxes in part annoyance that Snow was not accepting her fighting challenge.

Seeing Fang calm down, the trio cautiously slip into the room. "Glad to see my hero is safe." Serah exhales. "Well, its my job to make sure things get solved the best way possible." He smiles and hugs her. Hope walked up to the couple. "So, what did you do to anger her?" The teen turned to Fang, who went back to the same spot on the couch was when Serah and Snow walked in.  
"I came back to the living room and Fang was laying there mumbling random things. I told her she should sleep off the beer but she did not like my idea." He rubs the side of his face. "Man, at this rate i'm going to lose all my teeth." He jokes lightly but gives a slight at thought it might be true.

Fang grumbles. "What is with all that noise? Its giving me a headache." Fang complains as she covered her ears. A loud crash of thunder shakes the house gently.  
A small yelp squeaked in surprise at the sudden noise. "Who was that?" Serah questioned. With her being downstairs and Fang groaning on the couch it could not been them. Then...well, Hope, Sazh, and Snow would not even be able to go that high in the vocal range. Yup, not even Hope. It was that high.

No one responds directly to her question. Everyone is too frozen on spot to do anything. Hope inhales sharply as he pulls out his boomerang. He cautiously makes his way to the hallway and Snow follows behind as Sazh whispers an,“I keep an eye on Fang.” Serah gives a low hum seeing her fiance not taking the lead but is not completely bothered by it. What did disturb her is how much Hope and taken to acting like Lightning. The boy takes after her a lot and from what she has been told, she could see why Hope followed Lightning's lead. Lightning is brave, strong, smart, and talented. It was no wonder he took out after her out of everyone from the group.

"Who's there?" Hope's voice is not as strong as her sister but it still carried the power needed to show authority. Or in this case, bravery.The mystery person did not comment back.Hope rounds the corner and pokes his head out. Not seeing anyone, he turns the corner with his weapon high. He is sure the voice came down that hallway. The only other important place in the hallway is the stairs, that lead to the second floor.  
He glanced up not seeing anyone.  
"Hey, buddy. Let me take a look. You stay down here and guard the ladies." Snow suggests. Lightning would kill him thousands a times if she found out that he let Hope take care of a delicate situation by himself. Hope frowns but made no argument. Snow moves forward. "Come out here! You are not supposed to be here. If you show yourself now, I may go easy on you."Another small yelp comes from the second floor as a shadow began to show and soon a figure.

"Oh my! Why is everyone acting so mean today? Did I do something wrong?" Vanille asks.Snow soften his expression and Hope scratches the back of his head in embarrassment. Serah shakes her head and gives a light laugh. "Don't worry Vanille. We are not mad at you. We just thought there was an intruder. Sorry that we scared you." Serah gives a nervous laugh. 'Why did we assume the worst?'  
"How long have you been there?" Hope sounds upset and even a hint of anger is traceable. Vanille brings up finger up to her face in a thinking position. "For about five hours. Why?" His frown deepens. "I was stuck in the tree for HOURS and you did not help me! What were you doing that was so busy?"

Vanille gives a giggled as she skips down the stairs. "Oh, well...I kind was snooping around the house why Fang was organizing the kitchen."Serah raised her eyebrow. "What kept you entertained this entire time?" They did not own anything big to where it would amaze a person for endless hours. Vanille points up stairs. "I went into Lightning's room."  
Snow pales at the thought. "Her room? Did you set off a trap opening the door?" He joke.  
Vanille smiles and shakes her head. "I saw the trap before entering. So I was able to go around it." She sounds prideful at her accomplishment.  
Everyone stands with wide eyes. Serah’s left eye twitch, not knowing how to comment. Hope takes a step back in disbelief that someone like Vanille would smart one of Lightning's traps. Snow keeps a blank face. "I was...I was joking about the trap. Does she really have traps in this house?" The question was directed to Serah, who seems unable to put her words together. "No, uhhhh. We don't. Well, I think we don't. Did she really have a trap in her room?" Snow throws his head back. As Serah starts to question everything she knows.

"You guys believed me?" Vanille finally burst into a laughing fit. "All of you guys are silly. Of course there was no traps!" Serah blushes in embarrassment. "So what were you doing in her room?"Vanille's smile went away. She taps her fingers on her face a if she in a deep thought. "I dont know what the boxy thing is called." Serah thinks as Vanille tries to think of words to explain what she was talking about. 'Boxy thing? What does Claire own that would someone busy for hours?'

"Uhhhh. It black and haves two button on the front of it. One was bright red so I decided press it but nothing happened until I turned on the Tv. I guess the box was connected to TV. It said there was something in...the...disk tray? Well, press another button and the a thing popped out. It shot a disk out. So, I put it back in. Then it started playing-whatever was on there. Then cool music started playing. and symbol was on the screen. Then some game started and I was in control of the person on the TV."  
Hope tilted his head. "I think you found a video game system. To me it sounds like you found a Playbox 340. Wait! Lightning plays video games?" He turns to Serah for an answer. Snow whistles at the thought of Lightning playing games. He thought Lightning would be someone to lecture anyone for wasting time on such meaningless past time.

"That's right!" Serah snaps her finger. "We bought one years ago but we stopped playing with it because we barely afford any games for it."  
"That would explain why it was so dusty when I found it." She waves her arms to mimic her earlier actions of airing the dust out of her face. "I was coughing like crazy! I thought I was going to die." Vanilla voice went higher at the point of it reaching a pitch no one was used to. "Well, that is one problem solved. Great work team!" Snow pumps his fist in the air. So, he did not do much but it I'd the thought that counts. Serah covers her laughter by holding her hand up to her face. "Yeah." There was a moment of silence as everyone was taking in the days antics. To them his was just a normal day. In their household it was never boring. Which was good...depending on who you ask. Lightning would take a uneventful day then something like this.

"Hey, why don't we watch a movie?" Everyone turns to Hope. "I mean, its late but isn't this the best time to see one? Especially, a horror one." Hope's eyes sparkle. He loved watching horror movies. "That sounds like a great idea." Vanille jumps for joy and grabs Hope's wrist. She pulls him out of the hallway and back into the living room with Serah and Snow taking their time coming in.  
Vanille sits right next to Fang, who haves a blank face with a gloss covering over her eyes. Sazh takes up an individual chair. Hope takes a seat left of Vanille. He shoots Fang a glare but makes no comment. Snow takes a seat in one of the chairs that next to the couch, not far from Sazh. Without a warning Serah places herself on Snow's lap, who smiles.

"So what should we watch?" Serah wonders with joy lingering in her voice.  
Hope grabs the remote control and begins scrolling through countless movies. His eyes glances quickly over each title so fast that no one could keep up with the boy. Every once in a while he would mumble words like " That movie is dumb." Or " Maybe we should see this this one..."  
"Oh yeah!" Fang speaking up catches almost everyone off guard mostly because the woman has been not acting herself with the alcohol in her system. The older woman turns to Serah. "I forgot to tell you that Lightning gave a call...turns out she is not dead." The room froze. Nobody said anything.

"What? Fang! Why did you not tell me any sooner. What is wrong with you?!" Serah shoots up and runs to voice machine. "That is is something you would tell me right away. Oh my god. Here I am worrying about Claire and she was fine the entire time." Serah continues to rant about Fang's disregard for Lightning's safety."What? If you really worried then why did you not care all day?" Fang counters. Vanille slaps Fang's leg and shushes her. Fang grumbles and leans on the armrest. Serah tightens the grip on the phone.  
'She is right...Why did I not think about Lightning all day? I thought she was dead...and blew it off as if she was nothing.' Serah swallows roughly. Tears build up as they threaten to fall.

'I am a horrible sister.'

(SUBMIT)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you.


End file.
